Welcome to Jalopnik's open thread for the first of the three presidential debates. All throughout the campaign, you've heard the auto industry alternatively kicked around and cuddled by Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Barack Obama. Tonight, starting at 9 pm ET in Denver, it's bound to happen again.

A few things to listen for from each candidate:

Romney is likely to invoke his dad, the late Michigan governor and cabinet secretary George Romney. He's probably going to talk about growing up in Detroit (he was born there, but was raised in upscale Bloomfield Hills). There's bound to be a question about his "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op-ed in The New York Times. He may even take credit for designing the bailout.

Obama will undoubtedly repeat some version of the line, "Osama Bin Laden is Dead and General Motors is alive." He'll talk about the 1 million (or more, the number keeps getting bigger) jobs that were saved by the $82 billion bailout of GM and Chrysler. You might hear him talk about the need for more fuel efficient vehicles and electric cars. He'll probably shout out to Toledo, since Ohio is such a key state.

Beyond that, there will probably be some mistakes, like Obama's claim from his 2009 State of the Union address that America invented the automobile. Matt and I will be listening for those and we want to you to be part of our truth squad as well.